


Something About Lightning

by Mikkal



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Friendship, Some cute things, Zoom is /evil/, also i have no idea what this is, au season 2, ish, speedforce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 19:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7234918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkal/pseuds/Mikkal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU for Earth-2 and Season 2.</p><p>Barry is <i>off</i> following the return from Earth-2. And while Iris and Eddie are content to following the patterns of before--waiting for Barry to come to them before finally confronting him when he doesn't--Wally is not. He bites the bullet and confronts him early. </p><p>And learns something he wishes he never knew.</p><p>Next time he'll listen to Iris and Eddie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something About Lightning

_“There is a fire_

_deep inside us_

_and nobody else can see_

_when it burns out.”_

                       —a softer world: 1174

 

 

“Where’s Barry?”

           “The 90 Mile Straight,” Iris answers casually, turning a page in her book before her hand goes back to carding through Eddie’s hair.

Eddie’s curled on the couch next to her, his head on her lap, and his eyes half-lidded as he watches _90 Minutes._ There’s still a nasty scrape on his forehead, half his eyebrow missing, but instead of focusing on it he’s absently ghosting his hand over Iris’ bare knee—her once grossly dark bruise from her dislocating it fades into yellow slowly and now it’s half the size it used to be only an hour ago.

           Wally sighs and plops down on the love seat, his whole body screaming in protest to the abuse. His bruises have bruises. Who knew being in the center of a metahuman battle was worse than being on the sidelines? Oh wait, plenty of people know that.

           “What’s he doing there?” he asks. “Where ever _there_ even is?”

           “Australia,” Eddie mumbles sounding half asleep. He doesn’t blame the dude, the amount of healing he did today? Anyone would be tired.

           Wally cuddles a pillow against his chest. “Okay, why is Barry in Australia running, by the sounds of it?” He refuses to GPS this 90 Mile Straight. _Give Barry his privacy_ , he tells himself. The dude hasn’t been alone for more than a few hours after Earth-2 and Wally’s subsequent gaining of his own powers.

           Which he’s going to promptly ignore the memory of because _ow_ is an understatement. (had it been that painful for Barry? he’s seen the scars.)

           “He likes to go there to think,” Iris says. She puts her book to the side after dog-earing a page. Wally resists the urge to throw her a bookmark, mostly because he doesn’t have one handy. Oh cool, he has a receipt…for condoms. Yep, not giving that to his sister, nope.

           “Oh.”

           He doesn’t really have much to say to that. While he and Barry have gotten closer now that they share the same power, they’re still not buddy-buddy like Joe wishes they were. They still step on each other toes way too often, especially during training. He can’t help it that he’s not as fast as Barry had been when he first started out, but, hey, at least he’s faster than Jay originally was. He’s taking pride in that.

           Wally pulls out his phone and checks for the 90 Mile Straight anyway. Hm, only about 16,947 kilometers away, and that’s from the COU to EPR, Western Australia. He could run that no problem. Barry probably runs back and forth on that 90-mile stretch and he wonders, vaguely, when he picked up that habit. Before or after he went back in time the first time? Before he knew about Eobard Thawne? Before or after Eddie killed himself?

           “You’re not going to run after him, are you?”

           He looks up to catch Iris’ pinched expression. Eddie seems checked out on the conversation around him, but Wally can’t be too sure that’s true, his hand’s still moving.

           “Why can’t I? A guy like him shouldn’t get caught up in his head.”

           Iris actually snorts at that. “True, but not the point. The only time Barry goes that far is if something is _really_ wrong, and if something is that wrong he tells us about it ninety-eight percent of the time. I trust him to come back to us.” She shrugs. “If he goes three more days, Eddie and I usually confront him.”

           She says it out of experience, he can tell, but that only helps his uneasy feeling a little bit. From his own experience of one Barry Allen, both times he’s actually spent with the older man and the stories from his friends, Barry is just getting more and more reckless.

           Wally stands, his back popping. “I’m going out,” he announces.

           Iris narrows her eyes at him, but doesn’t say anything against it. Eddie’s hand slowly stills on her knee, resting for a second until it slides off and hits the ground with a small _thud_. His eyes are closed, lips parted slightly, his chest moving in deep, sleeping breathes. Her gaze goes fond and she continues carding her hand through his hair.

           “Try not to trip,” she chirps teasingly.

           He rolls his eyes at her, making a face just just to make her laugh, and heads to the door, grabbing his jacket as he goes.

Joe’s at work now, Iris and Eddie took the day off, but they gave him a key to the West Family’s house a long time ago, probably before they should’ve ever given it to him to be honest. It was before Earth-2, before he knew Barry was the Flash, when he thought they didn’t want him because they already had _Barry Allen_ and he was _perfect_ , before Wally got his own powers, before they even had an idea they _could_ be a family.

           It’s just one key for the front door, a 2015 Central City key token ( _Welcome to Central City, Home to the Flash_ ), a lightning bolt token because Eddie thinks he’s hilarious (which would explain why Flash shirts keep showing up in his closet and why he’s seen Barry wear similar shirts more than once), and a STAR Labs keycard—the new ones.

           Wally scuffs his shoes on the porch in preparation to ride the lightning. He doesn’t have to change into his uniform, Barry taught him how to take the Speedforce and wrap it around himself to protect him and his clothes, and he’s kind of grateful for that. He loves Cisco and everything, but the weird combination of red and silver he wants to make his costume makes _no sense_ and he’d rather not thank you.

           He sort of wishes he weren’t so worried about Barry.

            Wally had idolized the Flash, like almost everyone in Central City, and he’d hated Barry (was _jealous_ of Barry, flawlessly smart, well-liked, goofy, oblivious). Learning his hero and his white boy were one and the same, then being struck by lightning that resulted from a sonic boom from Zoom and the Flash taking off at the same time, that had put him through the ringer.

            But he wishes…he wishes Barry would just _talk_ about Earth-2, about what happened, what he learned. Iris and Eddie may be use to this long pause between him learning and them knowing, but Wally isn’t use to it. And as one of those speedsters Zoom wants to steal from, he has a right to know, yeah?

            Wally takes a deep breath, closing his eyes.

            And then _runs._

He makes it to the Nullarbor Plain in record time, skidding to a stop right at the _90-Mile Straight_ sign. Dust flares up in a cloud and he sneezes.

            “Bless you.”

            He jerks in surprised and looks right to see Barry standing there, dressed up with his cowl down. His hair is ruffled, his face paler than usual, shadows droop under his eyes. There’s a kangaroo at his feet, bloody and dead.

            Wally’s stomach rolls at the sight, his chest tightening. Flies buzz audibly around it, landing on lifeless black eyes.

            Barry follows his gaze, shoulders slumping.  “The red kangaroo is six-foot-tall, and two hundred pounds of muscles,” he starts casually. Disturbingly casual. “Which means nothing to a two-hundred-ton road train tuck travelling at seventy miles an hour.” He sighs, running a gloved hand through his hair. “I come here sometimes, to run…and to think. I didn’t want to think today, though. I just wanted to _run_.”

            He bits his lip, moving closer, feeling the crackles of Speedforce between them. “What don’t you want to think about?”

            This man looks nothing like the Flash, looks nothing like the steely determined Barry Allen.

            He just looks _broken_.

            Wally swallows thickly. “Barry, what happened on Earth-2? What won’t you tell Iris and Eddie?”

            Barry meets his eyes and Wally has to suck in a breath. Lightning sparks somewhere in his core and he knows, he _knows_ , he hasn’t dealt with the full majesty that the Speedforce contains. But looking at Barry now, he gets a small taste of it.

            “Run with me,” he says, voice dipping low. He yanks up his cowl, tightening it around his cheeks and jaw.

            “Barry—.”

            “ _Run_.”

            And he takes off. Wally resists, but the compulsion to follow, to ride the lightning with this man who could very well be the Speedforce itself it too much. He follows, catching up quickly.

            For a moment he’s proud, but then he realizes Barry’s holding back.

            _Holding back_.

            He feels it the moment Barry stops trying. The moment Barry loses himself in running.

            Then he sees it a second later.

            With a sonic boom he disappears in gold lightning, a blur of red.

            “Barry!” he shouts.

            He puts on his brakes, skipping, stumbling to a stop. Panting, he braces himself on his knees to catch his breath as he watches lightning arc back and forth along the Straight. If he were anyone but a speedster, he wouldn’t see anything. No blur, no lightning. Nothing. Barry is a ghost.

            “Barry, come on!” he shouts again. “Don’t be a dick. What happened on Earth-2? _Barry!_ ”

            Blink. He’s there, right in front of him, static on the edges. There’s something dark, something other worldly about him right now. He’s no longer part of this world. A speed demon.

            “Who are Iris and Eddie on Earth-2?” Barry demands, voice distorted.

            Wally shakes his head, trembling. “I don’t know. You didn’t tell anyone about them. You only talked about Reverb, Deathstorm, and Killer Frost.”

            Barry looms over him. The dude is only two inches taller than him, but right now Wally feels _tiny_ in the presence of the Speedforce.

            “Dead,” Barry says, voice broken. “Dead. Both of them. Joe. My parents. All of them were dead. _Murdered_.”

            Wally chokes. “Murdered—By, by _who_?”

            “By Zoom.”

            He shakes his head, scrubbing at his face. “No, no. That doesn’t make any sense. Cisco…Harry…They didn’t say—. Why would Zoom care if Jay is Earth-2’s Flash? Why not Joan?”

            Barry’s fingers curl against his thighs, static sparking. “Who is my doppelgänger on Earth-2?” he asks softly, dangerously.

            And now Wally can hear it. The Speedforce had drowned it out earlier, but now. Guilt. Anger. Grief. Disbelief. Guilt. Guilt. _Guilt_. Loathing. So much loathing. It _thrums_ along their connection, amplified by the high emotions and how close the Speedforce it to the surface.

            He doesn’t have to question it. He doesn’t have to guess. He has to swallow the bile climbing up his throat and breath out through his nose. But he says it.

            “ _Zoom_.”

            Barry makes a wounded noise in the back of his throat, backing up like he’d been slapped. Like hearing it out loud makes it _too real_.

            “Zoom is _me_ ,” he says. His hand creep up to his face, pulling off his cowl, his fingers gripping his hair _tight_. “I’m Zoom. I killed them. They were holding me _back_. I got drunk on the Speedforce and thought emotional ties would make me _slow_.” Tears drip down his cheeks, he sobs.

            “ _Hey_ ,” Wally says firmly, stepping closer. He ignores the warning spark lashing out from Barry and grabs his shoulders. “That’s _not_ you. _You_ are Earth-1 Barry Allen. _You_ are the _Flash_. Your friends and family makes you _faster_ , they would never slow you down. When have they ever? How many accomplishments come from them encouraging you or you fighting for them?”

            Barry fights to break his grip. Wally just holds on tighter.

            “I had everything on that earth,” he argues. “I had my mom and dad. I had my job. I had Iris and Eddie. I had more on that earth than I will ever have on this one. _And I still turned against it_.”

            He’s at a loss. He can only stand there as Barry _drops_ to his knees, burying his face in his hands. Shoulders shaking, sobs loud.  

            Maybe he should’ve left this to Iris and Eddie.

            He’s here now, though.

            Wally kneels to the ground in front of him, gripping his wrists and trying to pull away his hands. “Barry, listen to me. You are not Zoom, and you will never be Zoom. The circumstances may look the same, but take a step back. From day one you’ve done everything in your power _with_ your power to help people. What did Zoom do first?”

            There’s a long hesitation before he mumbles, “Murdered cops. Faked a hostage situation and killed all but one, so he could get the word out. Then killed that one in his home later that night.”

            “And what did you do?”

            “Saved a cop at the CCPD, then saved Iris from a car chase gone wild.”

            He shakes Barry slightly, getting his attention. “See a difference? _You are not Zoom_. The fact that you’re freaking out about this proves so much more than I could ever say. And trust me, you _are_ freaking out. Over nothing.”

            Barry snorts out a strangled laugh. Something loosens in Wally’s chest and he allows the corner of his mouth twitch up in a small smile.

            “Come on,” he urges, tugging him up. “Let’s head home, okay? Iris and Eddie would be more than happy to cuddle you until you can’t stand it. I, for one, know Dad’s making lasagna, and I’m starving.”

            He stands, shaking like a leaf. Somehow he’s even paler now. Simple words and assurances won’t fix this, but there’s something lighter about Barry that Wally’s going to hold on to.

            Before they run, though, Wally pauses. Barry looks back, confused.

            “What?” he croaks, then yelps in surprise when Wally yanks him into a tight hug. “Jesus.”

            Wally holds onto him for longer than he thought he would, but he doesn’t want to let go. “We’ll figure it out,” he says quietly. Barry’s arms wrap around him in response. “But you need to tell Iris and Eddie.”

            He feels him nod. “I will. I promise.” He breathes in a shuddering breath. “Thank you, Wally.”

            “Any time, Barry.”

            Barry squeezes back then steps away, squaring his shoulders.

They stand side by side and then they _run._

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanon Jay slower (for reasons that deal with timing and comicbook stuff), and Barry and Wally equal speeds with mastery in different skills the Speedforce provides. Right now though, Wally hasn't been a speedster for as long and Barry had a 9 month coma to help his body and mind adjust. So he's only slower for now. but not for long. He will catch up.
> 
> Borrowed the kangaroo line from _Injustice: Year One_


End file.
